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Updated: Jun 23, 2026
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Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology
Published on: June 29, 2021
Co-speech gestures influence neural activity in brain regions associated with processing semantic information
Anthony Steven Dick1, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Uri Hasson
1Department of Neurology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
Human Brain Mapping
|April 23, 2009
Summary
Gestures accompanying speech enhance brain activity in semantic processing regions. The brain processes visual gestures, even unrelated ones, for meaning alongside spoken words.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Psycholinguistics
Background:
- Co-speech gestures provide crucial semantic information, aiding listeners in disambiguating spoken messages.
- Understanding the neural basis of how visual gestures influence speech comprehension is essential.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural mechanisms by which gestures modulate brain activity during speech processing.
- To determine if the semantic relatedness of gestures to speech affects neural responses.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to record brain activity (BOLD response).
- Participants listened to stories under three audiovisual conditions (natural gestures, semantically unrelated gestures, no gestures) and one auditory-only condition.
Main Results:
- Bilateral posterior superior temporal sulcus and left anterior inferior frontal gyrus showed increased activity with gestures, irrespective of semantic relation.
- The right inferior frontal gyrus exhibited heightened activity when gestures were semantically unrelated to speech, indicating sensitivity to semantic import.
Conclusions:
- Perceiving hand movements during speech modulates neural activation patterns in areas for biological motion and discourse comprehension.
- Listeners actively seek meaning in accompanying gestures, not just in spoken words.
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